The Siren's Call (Fantasy, Science Fiction, Romance) (FORCED TO SERVE)

by McDonald, Donna

  Gwen squeezed his hand. “No—no, of course you’re not. We’re not even going into the same building. Promise,” she said.

  “Keep in touch, Commander,” Synar ordered, giving Dorian one last hard look before running to follow after Malachi.

  Chapter 9

  “So which way?” Gwen asked Zade as her captain disappeared into the semidarkness.

  Lifting a hand to his throat, he was happy to find the collar still gone. The knowledge brought his gaze back to the female who had removed it.

  Everything was confusing still, and his head hurt badly, so he told himself to focus on her fingers squeezing his. It was reassuring to touch her, but the female warrior’s nearness was also a stimulant. And oddly, a form of torture. Just her presence at his side gave him bonding urges that all the drugs he had been given hadn’t been able to coax from him.

  Realizing she was still waiting for his answer, he pointed tiredly in the direction he’d run from just a short time ago, not convinced yet of her intentions. He really was not going back there.

  “Thanks,” she said softly, rubbing his arm with her free hand. “I know this is difficult. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t necessary.”

  He noticed even the simplest touch caused something inside him to vibrate strongly. The pain in his gut had turned to a throb ever since he’d gone into the guard building and found her. Now he followed her mostly because he did not know what else to do. It was like he had to stay with her.

  Maybe she was telling the truth about knowing him. He hoped it was the truth. Despite wanting to know the information that felt just beyond his mind’s ability to grasp, he still found himself hoping that she wasn’t leading him back to his demise as they moved along.

  They crept along the sides of the buildings, staying in the shadows as much as possible. She slowed and began to whisper orders to him.

  “Look, Zade. I wasn’t joking about you being my owner. If a local comes along, take my arm and act like you’re dragging me back home with you. Tell them I hid the controller and tried to run away. They’ll believe you’re an owner now that you’re not wearing the collar,” Gwen claimed.

  He said nothing in reply, just looked at her, wondering again why she’d left hers in place. It was the primary reason he didn’t completely believe her.

  “Zade, are you hearing me? Fight the drugs and talk to me,” she ordered.

  Reaching out a hand, he stopped her in the darkest shadow he saw, and then did what he’d been compelled to do since he saw her. Maybe it would tell him what his mind could not absorb from just hearing her words.

  “No, Zade. We don’t have time for this―” Gwen began, but the rest was lost as his insistent and very demanding mouth found hers, the contact sizzling along nerve endings that roared back to life without her permission. When Zade pressed his stomach to hers, the contact of their cords had her groaning. She could not, absolutely could not, let her attention drop any lower without begging him to take her then and there. It was every bit as bad as the first time she had kissed him in the training room.

  “Who are you? Why do I feel this way about you when I failed all other females?” he demanded against her mouth when he finally set it free.

  Gwen swallowed, not sure what to tell him or what he would understand if he didn’t recognize her. In the end she just hoped his instincts and self-awareness would work despite his lack of memory.

  When she saw he was headed back to her mouth for another kiss, Gwen put a trembling hand up to his lips and pushed them gently away from hers.

  “I swear by the Creators of All that I know you. You are Lieutenant Dorian Zade, a Siren from Rylen. You serve as a spiritual counselor on a Peace Alliance ship called the Liberator that I also serve on. You were abducted along with… along with another Siren. Her name is Sarinnea. That’s who we’re looking for right now.”

  She felt him step into her and press hard between her thighs. His interest was obvious and just as insistent as his mouth had been moments before. Gwen lifted to her toes trying to ease away from the torture of it. As soon as he got his memory back, she intended to make him pay for torturing her in the middle of a mission.

  “Explain this need for you that demands so insistently to be met,” he ordered, pressing into her again.

  “You are my mate. You feel this way because you are my mate,” Gwen whispered urgently, trying to keep her voice soft and her moaning to herself. “Now we have to go. We need to find Sarinnea and get back to the shuttle and Synar. We’ll have to talk about this later. We can’t do this yet.”

  “Now,” he said. “You will explain now. Prove we are mates now.”

  “No—I can’t. I want to, but this is not the time,” Gwen said, the breath leaving her when he pressed her even harder against the wall which was scraping her naked back, not that she cared.

  No male had ever felt so good to her. Wanting him to follow through on his body’s promise made her head spin and the rest of her ache so badly for him that she had to fight herself as much as him.

  “I want you fiercely,” he said, bending to hide his face in the side of her neck. “Make this stop.”

  A hysterical laugh escaped her and she felt her legs shaking against his. In fact, her whole body was shaking against his. Her hands scraped the sides of the building as she tried to brace herself. This was bad. Very, very bad. She wasn’t sure she was going to be able to stop Zade from consummating their relationship right up against the wall.

  “Zade, step back. Please. I told you. We can’t do this—not now—not yet. We have to find Sarinnea and escape. I’m truly begging you to wait just a little longer,” she pleaded, moaning when he bent his legs. He deliberately slid his erection down one of her thighs and back up until the hard tip of his arousal was pressed against her fortunately still covered crotch.

  “Shades of Kellnor—take your slave to your residence,” a voice said harshly. “Public bonding will only make others want her. You’re acting like a fool. No female is worth that.”

  Gwen felt Dorian reluctantly ease his weight off her and straighten. The glare he gave the male who interrupted them was vicious and lethal in its threat. Her mind filled with a vision of Zade killing him with his bare hands like he had the guard. Her hand went out to the band of his pants, her fingers skimming his flat stomach and drawing his attention back to her.

  Glancing back at her, she saw indecision in his gaze. It was what Sarinnea had warned her about. The mated Siren male part of Zade was viewing the interrupting male as a threat. She was female enough to find it thrilling, and warrior enough to see it as a problem for their escape if she let him go around killing every male that spoke to them.

  Obviously, this version of the male who mated her was not as calm or as controlled as the more enlightened one who had originally tried to claim her. Gwen realized that she had to show Zade confrontation could be avoided. The more people they killed, the bigger trail they left to follow.

  “Don’t hurt me anymore,” she begged softly, putting as much pleading in her voice as possible. Tears were too much to ask. “I promise not to run away again. Don’t do this to me in public. Please take me home first. I’m sorry. I promise. I’m sorry.”

  Zade turned his glare on her, then she saw his gaze shift slightly and a gentleness enter his eyes. She said a prayer to the deities he believed in, figuring she needed all the help she could get at the moment. She felt Zade grab her wrist and jerk her out of the shadows, thrusting her in front of him so hard she stumbled and scraped the soles of her feet on the hard, stony ground. It made her wince but injected a bit of realism into their performance.

  “You’ll pay for getting me out of bed to chase you,” he said harshly, grabbing her arm and pushing her forward again.

  Gwen groaned like he was hurting her, not having to work as hard to pretend to sniffle this time. Pain was constant and everywhere. Her feet might never be the same.

  Once out of sight, they walked quickly, stopping only when she felt him
stiffen. On the left, she saw the garden from her vision, and just beyond it was the building where Zade had been held.

  Gwen reached out and stroked his arm as he stared at his former prison. “Anybody in there worth killing?” she asked. “I’d be glad to help.”

  He snorted at her sweetly spoken offer. With his mind clearing more after their walk, he now recognized her teasing for what it was, though she had already proven herself capable of doing so if he had needed someone killed.

  “No. My torturers are already dead,” he said flatly.

  Gwen nodded and pointed to the garden. “Good to hear. Now see that residence with the little garden in the back? That’s where I saw Sarinnea—the other Siren—in my vision. Do you know this location?”

  Shaking his head, he looked around. “They gave me drugs every day. I was very sick, and when that had passed, I didn’t remember anything. I don’t even know how long ago it was or how long I was detained. I have speech, education, and some latent training in self-defense. But I know little else. You are the first to recognize me.”

  They were still talking softly when a side door opened on the residence. A female slave walked out and flung what looked like food scraps into the garden area. In the falling darkness, it was hard to see. She started back inside when Gwen decided to take the risk and call to her.

  “Sarinnea? Is that you?”

  The female turned and peered into the darkness. “Yes,” she whispered, walking back through the garden towards the fence where they stood on the other side.

  Gwen grabbed Zade’s hand and dragged him closer with her.

  “Dorian,” Sarinnea said shakily, covering her mouth with her hand to stop the sob. “I thought…they said…” She bit her fist and fought back the choked sob.

  “I’m sorry, Sarinnea. Dorian’s safe, but he doesn’t know you—or me,” Gwen said, dragging him closer still so his mother could see he was mostly unharmed. “He doesn’t know himself or anyone. But our…the energy connection you know about is helping him trust me. Come with us now. Synar and Malachi are rescuing Ania.”

  “I can’t go,” Sarinnea said, choking off the words with another sob. “I want to but…I can’t leave. There’s someone…”

  Gwen watched an attractive Norblade male come to the door and peer out. He was wearing a collar. “Sarinnea?”

  “Here, Jordon,” she said, motioning him out. “These are…”

  Sarinnea looked at her child and then at the warrior female whom she had known would come for him. Her thinking was to play it all down, just in case. “These are friends I knew before I came here. It’s alright, Jordon.”

  He walked out of the residence and over to where they stood watching. “You were out here a long time, and I was worried. I just heard a slave escaped and killed several guards.”

  “Jordon, my friends have come to collect me. If I leave, would you come with us?” Sarinnea asked.

  Gwen watched his gaze meet hers before it switched to Zade’s. It was obvious the tall male without a collar frightened him.

  “Come back inside where it’s safe,” he ordered, turning back to Sarinnea, reaching out a hand to take her arm.

  Gwen let go of Zade’s hand and stepped to the fence, reaching across it to put her hands on Sarinnea’s collar. She spoke the word to unlock it and felt the collar fall away in her hands. Bending with the pain again, she handed the collar back to Sarinnea. “You can put the collar back on and it will lock again. Choose your destiny quickly. But you know once Zade remembers everything, he will just come back after you.”

  Sarinnea looked at Gwen with large eyes before swinging a pleading gaze to the male standing next to her. “Please. Come with us, Jordon. You don’t have to let them hurt you anymore.”

  He pulled the collar from Sarinnea’s hand and tossed it to the ground. Then Gwen watched him sweep Sarinnea up for a searing kiss that seemed to surprise her, ending it with scooping her up and depositing her bodily on the other side of the fence.

  “Don’t worry about me. Just go with your friends and find your freedom,” Jordon whispered.

  Gwen grabbed his arm when he went to pull away. “Don’t be a martyr. I can remove your collar as well. I don’t care what’s going on here, but we really need to leave if we’re going to. Every moment we linger is a risk.”

  He looked unsure, then looked at Sarinnea, who nodded.

  “I’ve worn this collar for fifteen Earth years,” he said to the brash female who still had a strong grip on his arm.

  Gwen stepped close to him, took a deep breath, and put her hands on the Norblade male’s slave collar. The moment the word she spoke hit the air, the collar unlocked. This time the reverberating pain in her body sent her to her knees, which got scraped on the stony ground, along with her hands that Zade had dragged across the brick wall as they escaped.

  “Damn it, Ania. It doesn’t send you to your knees. What am I doing wrong?”

  She looked over and saw Zade studying her again. Was that admiration she saw in his gaze? Or condescension? It had always been hard to tell with him. At the moment, it was nearly impossible to read his expressions.

  “A little help here,” she said to him, snapping her fingers and waving her hand to motion him to help her. Despite their situation, Gwen snorted as she watched Zade almost reluctantly walk to where she knelt in the dirt. Evidently he’d kill for her but didn’t want to help her up after she fell. Males were so hard to understand.

  “I thought I was supposed to be the owner and you were supposed to be the slave,” he said, his tone full of sarcasm that he couldn’t explain to himself.

  The warrior female had done nothing but help people, yet everything about her irritated him. As did the fact that he wanted inside her more passionately than he had wanted out of his cage.

  Gwen laughed despite the situation, finding Zade’s smart-ass remarks oddly reassuring since it meant he trusted her enough to know she wasn’t going to do more than verbally retaliate. It meant the real Dorian Zade was still in the damaged male somewhere.

  “And here I thought maybe I was going to be spared your sarcasm now that you don’t remember anything about me,” Gwen said, smiling at his glare.

  He finally offered his hand to her, pulling her to her feet, catching her as she weaved. “I’d offer to carry you, but I don’t think I can. They drugged everything I ate and drank. It’s fading a bit, but I’m still doing well just to walk.”

  Gwen patted his arm before shifting her gaze to Jordon. “I’ll make it. So you coming with us or not?”

  Jordon sighed and climbed over the fence. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  Gwen snorted. “I hope so too. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

  She grabbed Zade’s wrist, pushing the com link as she lifted it close to her mouth. His gaze was hot on her as her lips almost grazed his arm, but she made herself ignore the signals his body was sending.

  “We’ve found Sarinnea,” she said when Synar connected.

  “Good. We ran into complications, but we’re on our way in. Meet me at the shuttle. It’s in the woods just outside the city. The coordinates are in the com unit,” Synar said.

  “Heading there now. Jet out,” Gwen said, ignoring the way Zade rubbed the wrist she’d held while he held her gaze. Pulling her eyes from his, she looked at the new group member that she hoped could prove himself useful. “Which way is the city gate, Jordon?”

  He lifted his hand and pointed.

  “Thanks. Let’s go then,” Gwen said, heading off.

  The other three watched her stride off not even glancing back. They looked at each other and then followed.

  Chapter 10

  Want to set some boundaries before I forget I’m supposed to listen to you? I’m very upset that they captured my host.

  Synar ignored Malachi’s question as he studied the two guards.

  Gwen said this was a trap for you. Can you be trapped? Be truthful. He felt the demon mist wavering around him, wit
h Malachi’s vibrations moving against him like a breeze.

  Only by you or Ania, Malachi sent.

  Then what the Helios are they trying to do? I’d rather know before we just charge in there, Synar demanded. Can you tell what we’re getting into?

  Malachi reached out to see if anything had changed now that they were just outside where she was being held. His energy bounced off without penetrating.

  No. The metal of her prison seems to be Ceruse. Even a Khalsa warrior can’t curse free of that metal. And I can’t see past the energy signature of it. We’re just lucky there’s only one planet that can provide demon- and Khalsa-proof materials. If it were more common, more than just prisons would be built with it.

  Got a guess then about what they might try? Synar asked, his irritation at Malachi’s ramblings rising along with his impatience to go get Ania out.

  It’s a stretch—but they might have another amulet and another master waiting. If they killed Ania’s body while I was in it, I would be free of my contract with her and need a place to go. They might not have accounted for me having a demon master. Or the fact that I would wipe away their existence as if they had never been, Malachi sent fiercely. I’m worried about Ania, and I don’t like it, Liam.

  The reluctant admission amused him on some level, but Synar felt his energy aligning with Malachi’s in a way it never had. He let himself feel Malachi’s full power, and admitted he intended to use it any way he had to in order to free Ania.

  Malachi quivered around Synar as he stood. I have never felt your acceptance until now. Thank you, Liam.

  I mostly don’t care what’s in there, Synar sent. I care only about finding her. We will do what we must.

  I have never been more willing to serve you, Malachi sent.

  Synar walked to the door of the building, meeting two guards on the way.

  “Disable them quietly, but don’t kill them,” Synar said out loud.

  The two males listened to his orders to Malachi, looking confused. Then they suddenly dropped. Synar thought they were both lying suspiciously still for merely being unconscious, but he didn’t want to take time to check if the demon had overstepped his orders or not. The time for not trusting Malachi to obey him was done. He had to believe they had an accord in freeing Ania.